We should thank God every day for the Bible.  Having God’s Word in our own language and being able to purchase it at such a minor cost is an unbelievable blessing.  In this country, almost anyone who wants a Bible can have one.

Having a Bible alone, however, is not enough.  While Bibles can be found in the majority of homes in this country, most people do not take advantage of them.  For the Bible to profit people, it has to be read and studied.

Even studying the Bible is not enough.  It must be studied right.

2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

People who do not handle the Word of Truth the right way find themselves in a condition that is in some ways worse than those who have not studied the Bible at all.  It is easier to teach a person who does not know the Bible than it is to unteach a person who has mishandled it.  Because of this, I want to consider some things that are involved with rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

I will begin by emphasizing the importance of having the right attitude toward the Bible.  To rightly divide the Bible, we must be clear about what it is.  Every time we read from the Bible, we must understand that we are reading the Word of God.  It is not just another book.  It is not a book full of the opinions of man.  It is God’s holy and divinely inspired Word.  Even in the first century, when the Bible was still in the process of being written, and people were hearing God’s Word directly from the inspired apostles, some did not receive it as the Word of God.  This is why Paul was so happy when they did.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 (ESV)
¹³  And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

This clearly suggests that many were not accepting the teachings of Paul as God’s Word as the people at Thessalonica did.  Today nothing has changed.  Many reject some of the teachings of Paul, attributing them to nothing more than his own opinions, influenced by his personal biases.  People have argued with me that when Paul taught that women were to learn in silence and not usurp the authority of men (1 Timothy 2:11-12), it was just because he had been taught to be a male chauvinist by society.  Of course, this leads those who feel that way to reject his teachings on that subject.  The point of it is this—some do not view the Bible as the inspired Word of God, and it affects what they do with it.

If you are going to rightly divide the Word of God (giving it the respect it deserves and never adding or taking away from it) it is going to begin with having absolutely no doubt about what it is—the Word of God.

When we know the Bible is God’s Word, we will be careful how we handle it.  We will not pick and choose which portion of it we are going to believe and obey, but will live by it as a whole, knowing that every book, chapter, and verse is there because God so willed it to be so.  This is the beginning of rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.